Geiger Key

Geiger Key is an island in the lower Florida Keys about convert|5|mi|km east of Key West. It is located to the south of, and bridged to, Big Coppitt Key via Boca Chica Road (Monroe County Road 941) at approximately mile marker 11 on U.S. 1 (or the Overseas Highway). It is home to the small trailer park community of Tamarac, Geiger Key Pub & Grill and Geiger Key Marina. It is part of the census-designated place of Big Coppitt Key, Florida.

It was named after the Geiger tree, Cordia Sebestena L., which in turn was named by John James Audubon for Captain Geiger. Captain Geiger was a successful Key West wrecker with whom Audubon lived during his 1832 stay in the keys. A.D. Bache, in the notes for his Coast Survey conducted in 1861 says of the key: "Geiger's Key is convert|2|mi|km long and convert|1|mi|km|sing=on wide. It was in good cultivation in 1855, and was then inhabited by an industrious German, from whom it derived its name." [http://keys.fiu.edu/gazetteer/00000325.htm "Key Names" Florida Keys Gazetteer]

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